Evolving Practices and Community Interactions: Unified Approaches to Diversifying Archaeology and Understanding the Past.

Session Hosting Format: 
pre-recorded session
Date/Time: 
Thursday, April 28, 2022 - 1:00pm to 3:20pm
(CST)
Room: 
Online
Organizer(s): 
  • Alysha Edwards, University of Montana
  • Andrea Shiverdecker, University of Montana
Contact Email: 
alysha.edwards@umconnect.umt.edu
Session Description (300 word max): 

With contributions from current graduate students at the University of Montana, this session will be separated between two major themes: cross-cultural and inter-regional interactions reflected in the archaeological record and the continuous evolution of archaeological and anthropological practices. In addressing these themes, presentations vary culturally, geographically, and theoretically. From examining subsistence practices and warfare in the arctic to social organization and cooperation in the southern interior of British Columbia, the first portion of the session elaborates on community relations as is reflected archaeologically and the connection to present populations. The second portion of this session addresses the challenges and implications of diversifying present day research methods and collaborative preservation. In merging presenters from varying backgrounds and research interests, this session is an example of ‘where communities meet’ and reflects the collaborative efforts towards addressing topics and issues in anthropology regardless of cultural and geographic context.

 

 

Presentations
01:00 PM: A Synergy of Abandonment: Archaeological Understandings of Abandoned Norse Arctic Settlements and North American Mining Ghost Towns
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Andrea Shiverdecker - University of Montana

Landscapes of abandonment create an awe of mystique for humans from all walks of life. The most asked question is, ‘What caused this place to be abandoned?’. Taking an evolutionary theoretical concept of how colonialist commodification through imperialist capitalism created a World System Theory, the Table of Historical Abandonment model is born. This four-prong approach simplifies the causations of not only settlement sustainability, but of the culminating internal and external factors that ultimately lead to abandonment in a historical archaeological context. This model can provide insight into avenues of research into unknown realms of historical archaeology by making missing avenues of thought known as a needed echelon to be explored. A synergy is created between what is known of the abandoned mining Garnet Ghost Town outside of Missoula, Montana and what were the causations for the Norse abandonment of Greenland, showing an introductory exploration into the development and utilization of the Table of Historical Abandonment Model.
01:20 PM: The of Inclusion of Indigenous Perspectives in Museum Creation in North America
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Jocelyn Palombo - University of Montana

Since the initial colonization of the Americas, there has been a constant struggle between the Indigenous populations and those outside who want to preserve the Native culture. As the disciplines of Anthropology and Archeology evolved so have museum studies and preservation ethics. While these academic areas grow Native populations and their descendants have started to become more vocal about their opinions on the curation and presentation of their cultures within museums. They work to remind the museums that they, Native Americans, are in fact still alive and that their culture is not dead. In recent years many strategies have been introduced and tested on small and large scales. Evaluating some of these approaches and implementing elements from them into the museum creation process will allow researchers to find an effective way to foster collaboration. which in turn will create museums that display Indigenous material in a way that the decedents, as well as the museum professionals, can be proud of.
01:40 PM: Issues in Culture Heritage Studies and Anthropology: Reflecting on the Challenges Posed by the ‘Inconvenient Indian’
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Alysha Edwards - University of Montana

In present day cultural heritage studies (anthropology), we can recognize the progress made towards meaningful and ethical research through inclusive relationships in academia with communities that traditionally, would be the subject of research in anthropology and archaeology. Recognizing this, while my experience in academia is limited, here I offer observations and critiques to what are considered ‘issues in cultural heritage studies’. Here it can be argued, the issue is within anthropology- as a discipline struggling to move beyond traditional styles of academic research, where the Aboriginal desire for representation and consultation has challenged and continues to challenge what is or was considered the study of culture. Here, I discuss political and theoretical issues relevant to heritage ownership, representation, Indigenous knowledges, the ‘crisis of accumulation’, and the growing development of Indigenous studies and the implications for anthropology.
02:00 PM: Modern Impacts on Traditional Subsistence Hunting in the Canadian Arctic
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Riza McClurkin - University of Montana

The tradition of arctic hunting is long and well documented, as both a means of food and an intrinsic link to culture. However, within the last centuries, that way of life has been threatened, and on many levels. While killing prey animals is the source of Arctic peoples’ entire livelihood, many people in western cultures see hunting as either a kind of sport or as murder. Most harmful is the idea that taking any animal life is at best unnecessary, and that the rights of animals trump the rights of arctic communities and their traditions.
02:20 PM: Engaging in Warfare on Kodiak Island
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Sean Bowerbank - University of Montana


The Alutiiq people of the Alaskan Peninsula and its surrounding island have brought many questions forward within the field of arctic archeology. Warfare is an act among the people that brings many questions of social complexity and collapse.  The ramifications of warfare among the Aluttiq people around the 11th century shaped the complete replacement with the incoming Koniag. How did this conflict shape the collapse that followed with the arrival of the Koniag? With a thorough purview of the academic work done within the region and using theories proposed within other sectors of collapse within the Arctic a conclusion can be made of the catalyst for their collapse and eventual replacement. The collapse of main subsistence resources due to climate variations during the Medieval Warm Period led to the rise of warfare among the different Alutiiq tribes. This warfare led to a collapse of population that allowed for the Koniag people to have an easier transition into the area. This work can be used under a modern lens to look at how ancient peoples reacted to the variations of climate in relation to the current climate change being seen in the area.
02:40 PM: Uncovering Cooperation in Housepit 54, Bridge River, British Columbia
Presentation format: Online - pre-recorded
Author(s):
  • Megan Denis - University of Montana

There is a significant amount of literature regarding the theory of cooperation, as well as ethnographies and data from modern populations that clearly show cooperation, yet it is difficult to tease that information out of the archaeological record. My dissertation will focus on Bridge River’s Housepit 54 in British Columbia, Canada. Times of fluctuating resource availability should result in the inhabitants of the house utilizing different approaches to social organization. By examining different measures of wealth and privatization, it may be possible to determine the level and mechanisms of cooperation the ancestors of the modern St’át’imc Nation engaged in at different times in the village’s history. If successful, this method could be used in other areas of the world to similarly determine when cooperation was a beneficial strategy and which mechanism was the most useful.